Time of First Dance...Please Help?!

I would do it before & kick off the evening, that way you can enjoy it all without worrying about things left to do.

Will people "arrive from 7pm" or are they coming beforehand and things kick off at 7pm?

We were having speeches 6pm - 7pm (our evening reception starts at 5.30pm with a welcome line), then 7.15pm cut the cake, 7.30pm first dance and 8.30pm the evening buffet comes out.

I'd have thought "after the barbecue" will be about 9pm-ish and that's a bit late to "start" the dancing. What entertainment have you got booked for the evening celebrations?

Assuming that things start from 7pm I'd say a toast and cake cutting at 7.15pm, followed straight after by the first dance, so people can enjoy themselves for an hour before the barbecue is served, was a reasonable way round things.

We only left 15 minutes between the cake and first dance so that there wasn't a rush of back to back stuff but time inbetween so people could have a LILO moment if they needed it - the cake cutting should only take a few minutes so there's no real need not to go straight into the first dance.

It then gives them an hour to cut up the cake, which I presume you are serving with your barbecue as a dessert option?

Okay I need to start posting more!

If this were my wedding I would say do the first dance straight away, mainly because I don't want to do one and i'd like to get it out of the way, but others may have more logical thoughts.

Wow thanks for the quick replies everyone.

7pm is when everyone should be there ie arrived and ready to start the evening so I think I will put our first dance down for 7.15-7.20 ish so it will go as follows:

Toast, Cut the Cake, First Dance, then BBQ buffet is served with the cake as dessert followed by LOTS of dancing the night away ?

Ps - Sorry CrazyCanuck thats prob my fault not posting very much latey!

It's worth bearing in mind that people are reluctant to approach the dancefloor until after the B&G have opened it so to speak, so the party doesn't really get started until after the first dance. The previous suggestions are spot on. It works really well doing the cake cutting then leading the B&G straight into their first dance.

Our evening do started about 7.00 (guests started appearing 6.30) so we did our first dance at 7.30 and then because a lot of our guests had been late and missed it we did it again about 9.30 after the break for our buffet. It was good too because I requested my parents 'song' to be played after ours as a wee thank you to them both and it meant that they were on the dance floor at least twice that evening - my mum spent a lot of time in the kitchen area checking on food as did H and myself and my dad's not much of a dancer without her influence!

We're having ours at 8pm with buffet open at 8.30pm. Our evening invites will just state evening reception at 7pm so if people can't arrive within the hour then their loss!

We have a swing singer singing from 7.30 till 8.30 and he will be signing our first dance

definitely WSS!

I am taking the "first" part of the "first dance" to mean our first dance as bride and groom. Our DJ will start at 7 pm and I will be up on the dance floor to signal to everyone that it's OK to dance. So our "first dnace" will actually be around 9 ish, I guess, and will probably trigger a switch from our concession to parents-music to our-music.